Stanford entered the game a 14-point underdog, but led 9-3 at halftime, briefly unsettling Wisconsin fans who considered a loss by their fourth-ranked Badgers next to impossible.
"I expected a blowout, but it was a lot closer than I thought it would be," said 22-year-old Wisconsin senior Elizabeth Severo, before downing a celebratory shot. The Rose Bowl excitement gave Madison a party atmosphere for the second consecutive day. Tracy and Geoff Smith were both wearing Wisconsin sweatshirts and sipping red Killer Kool-Aid from a plastic football cup as they watched the game at the Big Ten Pub in Madison. "We wanted to be as close to Camp Randall as possible," said Geoff Smith, who came to Madison from Appleton. "I think people this year are -- if not as enthusiastic -- more enthusiastic. I think a lot of it has to do with the millennium. It's the Rose Bowl 2000!" Dick Van Caster, 39, of Milwaukee, was decked out in a red floppy hat; a Badgers sweatshirt; red pants; a fake Badgers tattoo on his cheek; a rose and Wisconsin pins attached to his hat; red shoe laces and red-and-white Mardi Gras beads. "We couldn't ride in his car without wearing something Badger," said his friend Dawn Golla, 29, a student in Milwaukee. Marilyn Drager watched the Rose Bowl with her husband at the Clubhouse Sports Bar in Appleton. She said the couple has been following the Badgers since their son graduated from UW-Madison in 1988. Drager had a Bucky Badger stuffed animal on the table that played the Wisconsin fight song whenever Wisconsin scored and they gave it a squeeze.Fans said Ron Dayne's Heisman Trophy win made this year's season special. Dayne, who set the major-college career rushing mark this season, became only the third player to win back-to-back Rose Bowl MVP awards.
"I wish the Packers could draft him because he's a very solid runner and he gives 100 percent every game, but he's not cocky about it," Geoff Smith said, referring to Wisconsin's other football passion in Green Bay. Paul Najam, 20, a junior at UW-Madison, was grilling steak and bratwurst at his house with friends in preparation for the game. "I don't think it's as big a deal this year as it was last year," Najam said. "The big thing this year was Ron Dayne winning the Heisman." "Absolutely not!" protested his friend Rob Kanack, a 23-year-old postal worker. "I don't think it's less of a big deal. No way, dude! That's like saying Green Bay going to the Super Bowl two years in a row isn't a big deal."
